© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Kansas City roads don't have to be this terrible

Kansas City is one of the deadliest major cities for pedestrians. And a quarter of the traffic deaths over the last few years happened on just a few streets, which have become wider and faster than necessary over the decades. How did Kansas City get this way, and how is the city now working to make its streets less dangerous?

The Beacon reporter Josh Merchant discusses a series of stories about Kansas City's dangerous streets and what's being done to make them safer for drivers, bikers, and pedestrians — including bringing back red light cameras and changing intersections to roundabouts.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Celia Morton, Byron Love, and KCUR Studios, and edited by Madeline Fox, Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

You can support Kansas City Today by becoming a KCUR member: kcur.org/donate.

As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.